St. Jane Frances de Chantal

I cannot say that I am completely proud of how I chose my confirmation Saint.  At the time, I saw it as another "homework" assignment to check-off my to-do list.  There was nothing prayerful about it at all.  I literally googled "St. Chantal", and despite discovering that no St. Chantals have been canonized (yet), I ended up finding St. Jane Frances de Chantal.  From there I quickly filled out the information on my worksheet, turned it in, and did not think much of it for quite some time.


College was when I began to dig deeper into my belief in Catholicism, and it was then that I started look to the Saints for their example and their prayers.  I quickly learned that God had provided with an amazing spiritual companion for my faith journey. 


One of my favorite things about St. Jane Frances de Chantal is that she was a wife to a Baron and mother of six (two of her children died in infancy).  Knowing that she experienced the marriage vocation encourages me to turn to her in prayer often, especially when I am struggling with day-to-day challenges.  Like many other Saints, St. Jane also had a great love for the poor, and was known around her community for her generosity.


St. Jane's husband was killed during a tragic hunting accident when she was only twenty-eight.  Although her husband forgave the man who killed him minutes before he died, Jane was very heartbroken and struggled with forgiveness for a long time.  She took small steps daily, until she reached true forgiveness.  She ended up loving the hunter so completely, that she became godmother to his child!  If you ever struggle with forgiving someone, St. Jane is a wonderful saint to pray to for strength.


Saint Frances de Sales became Jane's spiritual director.  She greatly desired to become a nun, but he convinced her to defer this until her responsibilities as a mother had been met.  Eventually, with Frances de Sales' support Jane founded the Visitation order for women who were rejected by other orders due to advanced age, poor health, or being widowed.  Soon after she underwent much suffering during a plague in France, as her children and St. Francis de Sales died, but she cared for the sick and continued to follow God's will for her life.


By the time Saint Jane Frances de Chantal died in 1641, at the age of 69, there were 86 convent houses in her order.  When she died, St. Vincent de Paul saw her soul rise up, like a ball of fire, to heaven.


"Should you fall even fifty times a day, never on any account should that surprise or worry you. Instead, ever so gently set your heart back in the right direction and practice the opposite virtue, all the timespeaking words of love and trust to our Lord after you have committed a thousand faults, as much as if you had committed only one. Once we have humbled ourselves for the faults God allows us to become aware of in ourselves, we must forget them and go forward."- Saint Jane Frances de Chantal


Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Pray for us!